The French Model in the Construction of the Spanish State: The Moderate Moment

Abstract

In the first half of the nineteenth century the construction of the Spanish State had an especially intense moment of definition, both of its doctrinal basis and of the broad strokes of its institutional and territorial structure. After a first effort under the reformist government during the final period of Fernando VII, it was during the reign of Isabel II that the decisive steps were taken, now under the political hegemony of the moderate party. During both periods, French influence was notorious. Authors like Sainz de Andino, Burgos, Silvela, Ortiz de Zárate, Oliván, and Colmeiro took up the French model of State to sustain a conservative political turn, following the eviction of the progressives from power, putting an end to the major initiatives of the Spanish liberal revolution. The appropriation of the French model included both specific institutional formulas such as the concept of State identified with the Administration, and a specific type of strongly centralized Administration, which was the result of the reforms of the Napoleonic model by the July Monarchy.